In our busy lives it is easy to forget items that we need during the day such as umbrellas, hats, bags and sunscreen as a few examples. It is inconvenient to have to return home or to another location such as an office to pick them up. When we are leaving a location like a house it is also inconvenient to always check predicted weather conditions such as UV levels which would necessitate taking sunscreen, hats, sunglasses or umbrellas etc. If possessions are left at locations where there is a high risk of another party taking or stealing the possession then there may be a need to warn the user very quickly, depending on the level of risk of the location. Ideally the user should be warned as soon as they have left the area or are in the process of leaving the area. Some present solutions exist that provide a mechanism to locate items that have been lost, but this is inadequate because as soon as an item has been left in an area of high risk the item may be stolen or moved. Such methods also rely on there being other monitoring to locate the device, which will not always be available, and so will limit the utility of that approach.
If the user and the possession are in the same area of risk it may not be case that the user leaves the area while the possession remains, it may instead be the case that the possession leaves the area, for example because a thief takes the possession away. An example of this may be when the thief takes a bag away from the proximity of the user. If the user and the possession are in the same area of risk and the possession is moved or touched whilst staying within the area of risk then it would be desirable for the user to be alerted. For example, the possession may be a bag with a pocket with a zip closing the pocket. If the user and the bag are both at an airport (where the user may be easily distracted and thus not noticing someone opening the zip, perhaps while his back is turned concentrating on ticket reservations) then it would be desirable for the user to be warned if the zip is opened. Depending on the risk level of the area or time of day, while the bag is in the area there may be a need to also warn if the bag is even moved slightly, indicating the very beginning of a theft. It would be helpful if the monitoring could be automatically started or the user might require monitoring to start even without personally realising that the area is risky.
The user may sometimes need to leave a possession in a risk area where actuation of an entity, such as attempted operation of a lock or movement of a bike, should be enough to alert the user. In some high risk areas even approaching the entity might warrant warning. Power considerations should be balanced so that the small devices using Bluetooth Low Energy processors or similar devices minimise the amount of transmitting they perform to extend the life of the small batteries they use. It is the object of the present invention to fulfil these needs.